political party

FIVE IMPRESSIVE FACTS ABOUT THE GREEN PARTY LEADERSHIP

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by Chris Jarvis

Last weekend, the Green Party crowned its new leader, at its largest conference to date. The result came as no surprise to anybody – Caroline Lucas and her Co-Leader running mate Jonathan Bartley were elected with an overwhelming mandate, scooping up a phenomenal 86% of the vote. Given that the result was largely a foregone conclusion at the point that candidates were announced, and that the election would naturally get swallowed by the much larger, more adversarial battle in the Labour Party, this was a subdued, uninspiring election.

In spite of that, the Green Party and their leadership are unique, fascinating and impressive in a whole range of ways. Here are five of them.Continue Reading

GREEN PARTY, LET’S GET SERIOUS ABOUT ECONOMICS

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by David Malone

We need to have a serious debate in the party, first and foremost, about finance and economics. It seems to me that one of the defining facts of our times is that around the world the established political parties have surrendered to the idea that economics and finance no longer need to be under democratic control. This is wrong and dangerous.

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RADICAL ANTI-AUSTERITY FROM THE EUROPEAN LEFT SHOULDN’T BE IGNORED

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by Antonio Esposito Ryan

Pablo Iglesias’ party Podemos is just over 100 days old, yet it threatens to dismantle the monotonous duplicity in Spanish politics. Both the centre left ‘socialist’ PSOE and the centre right Populares are under threat from the party’s recent surge in support.

Iglesias, a lecturer at the University Compultense de Madrid, was known for his hyperactive stunts — such as asking his students to stand on their tables and assess power. He is unique in his approach to critiquing power amongst his academic counterparts; consistently reminding his students to continually scrutinize power. Iglesias vehemently opposes the neo-liberal capitalist orthodoxy of Thatcher and Reagan, and created Podemos as a backlash response to the highly critical politicians deriding the anti-austerity ‘indignado’ protests of 2011 in Puerta Del Sol. The establishment moaned saying the protestors should create their own political party. Iglesias responded to the request with a miraculous result.Continue Reading

ISRAELI ELECTION: NOT AS BAD AS YOU MIGHT THINK

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by Sam Alston

Having called an election, Prime Minister Netanyahu won a renewed mandate with an Israeli parliament (Knesset) that hewed to the right to the extent of being xenophobic. 20 seats out of the 120 seat went to centre parties lacking historic roots, clear ideology or a commitment to peace process. This describes both the result of the Israeli election of March 2015, and the Israeli election of 2013.

The 2013 Election

The election of 2013 followed what was seen in Israel as a successful and popular assault on Gaza. The Labour opposition was weak and divided, lacking in an alternative security narrative. The Yesh Atid centre party was taking Labour’s dividend from social protests, but was focused on tackling the ultra-orthodox.  The Arab and communists parties fought voter apathy and each other… The results below were not as the dramatic endorsement the prime minister may have prayed for.

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6 POLITICAL PARTIES, 6 PREDICTIONS AND (ROUGHLY) 160 WORDS OF ANALYSIS #5: CONSERVATIVES

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2014 has been a rocky year for the Tories. The one piece of good news throughout the year comes from the narrowing of the gap between themselves and Labour. In spite of this, the shrinking of the Labour poll lead has not come as a result of a resurgence of Tory support, but instead from a drop in the number of people saying they will vote Labour. Rather than winning over legions of new voters, the Tories are simply losing support at a slower rate than Labour. Add to this third place in the European elections, the assent of UKIP and the defection of two MPs, followed by losing the by-elections in both of their seats, the past year has been difficult. There’s little indication that 2015 will be any easier.

by Chris Jarvis

1. The Tories will scrape past 30% of the vote in May

Five political parties vying for votes in England means that the traditional splitting of large chunks of the electorate between the Tories and Labour is largely over. Combining this with the existence of a surging SNP in Scotland, a steadily rising Plaid in Wales, and what looks to be the closest battle between the two largest parties since the 1970s, the likelihood of any party emerging with between 35-40% of the vote is astronomically low.Continue Reading

THE GREEN SURGE IS EXCITING – BUT NOT SURPRISING

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by Georgia Elander

Things are looking good for the Green Party. This week the Green candidate in the Rochester and Strood by-election won nearly five times as many votes as the Liberal Democrat candidate; a YouGov poll revealed that the percentage of people who would vote for a Green candidate with a chance of winning is greater than the percentage of people who would vote for a UKIP candidate who could win; and this week too, the Greens polled at 8% nationally – a record high. In recent weeks, the party have outpolled the Lib Dems on several occasions, and membership as well as vote share is rising – the party has grown 80% this year alone.

When you look at the current political landscape of the UK, this success is not really surprising.Continue Reading